HomeArticlesExamining The American Criminal Justice System Criminology Essay

Examining The American Criminal Justice System Criminology Essay

There are four chief methods of penalties for offense, either being parole, probation, prison, or gaol. Probation is defined as: ‘A court-ordered period of correctional supervising in the community by and large as an option to captivity. In some instances probation can be a combined sentence of captivity followed by a period of community supervising. These informations include grownups under the legal power of probation bureau, irrespective of supervising position ( i.e. , active supervising, inactive supervising, fiscal conditions merely, warrant position, absconder position, in a residential/other intervention plan, or supervised out of legal power ) . ‘ ( Bureau of Justice Statistics ) .

Probation ‘s opposite number, word, on the other manus is defined as

‘A period of conditional supervised release in the community following a prison term, including captives released to parole either by a parole board determination ( discretional word ) or harmonizing to commissariats of a legislative act ( compulsory word ) . These informations include grownups under the legal power of a parole bureau, irrespective of supervising position ( i.e. , active supervising, inactive supervising, fiscal conditions merely, absconder position, or supervised out of province ) . ‘ ( Bureau of Justice Statistics ) .

Now, there are two different types of institutionalization, those being gaol and prison. Jail is defined purely as ‘confinement in a local gaol while pending test, expecting sentencing, functioning a sentence that is normally less than 1 twelvemonth, or waiting transportation to other installations after strong belief. ‘ ( Bureau of Justice Statistics ) . While most think the footings prison and gaol are interchangeable, prison is defined as ‘confinement in a province or federal correctional installation to function a sentence of more than 1 twelvemonth, although in some legal powers the length of sentence which consequences in prison parturiency is longer. ‘ ( Bureau of Justice Statistics ) . Clearly, prison is non jail, and frailty versa, as they are two distinguishable establishments of captivity.

There are four justifications for penalty, those being requital, disincentive, incapacitation, and rehabilitation ( Cotton 206 ) . Retribution is widely regarded as the most ancient justification for penalty. Retribution is mostly a merchandise of the Old Testament, which proclaims in multiple topographic points that felons should be punished in a agencies equal to that of their offense, ‘Eye for oculus, tooth for tooth, manus for manus, pes for pes, burn for burn, lesion for lesion, band for band. ‘ ( The Holy Bible Revised Standard Edition, Exodus 21-24 ) . Disincentive is the about antonym of requital, whereas requital is based chiefly on emotion, disincentive is rooted chiefly in logic. Basically deterrence plants off of the fact that if a individual knows that if they get caught perpetrating a offense, that they ‘ll acquire punished, the less likely they are to perpetrate the offense in the first topographic point ( Cotton 209 ) . Incapacitation is the 3rd justification of penalty, and it is similar to deterrence in that it focuses chiefly on protecting society from offense, instead than revenging the offense by usage of requital. Incapacitation is basically institutionalization, which prevents the individual from perpetrating more offenses by imprisoning them, and dividing them from society, whether it is for a short period of clip or for good ( Cotton 207-208 ) . Finally there ‘s rehabilitation, likely the most modern attack to warranting penalty out of the four grounds. This is perchance the most controversial and unpopular method every bit good, although there ‘s general public support, most correctional institutes do n’t handle the implicit in causes of offense. In short, rehabilitation is a method used to break the felon for their ain interest, every bit good as for the interest of society ( Cotton 211-212 ) .

Now, the condemnable justness system is n’t what it is today by accident, nor did it go on overnight. There has been a long development of the American condemnable justness system since even before the American settlements were founded. The justness system holds its roots in scriptural instructions, the early English monarchies, and even the Greco-Roman societies that were the precursor to most western civilisations today. ( Sterling 1 ) . One common rule of the condemnable justness system is the “ two or more informants ” regulation, which originated in the Bible ( The Holy Bible Revised Standard Edition, Deuteronomy 17:6 ) . This regulation is highly of import in all instances covering with capital penalty.

There are different doctrines between the American system of justness and the Roman system of justness, where there is a common misconception that both hold the same philosophical basiss, there is common land, nevertheless, that being that ‘in 375 B.C. Constantine ‘s boy introduced some elements of Christian Doctrine into some parts of Roman jurisprudence ‘ ( Sterling 1 ) . In 450 B.C. Theodorus furthered the influence of Christianity in Roman jurisprudence by spliting Roman jurisprudence into 5 subdivisions, each with Christian influences within it ( Sterling 1 ) . That nevertheless is where the similarities end. In Roman jurisprudence, no jurisprudence can be created above the degree of adult male, which contrasts todays Christian influenced jurisprudence, where the American justness system maps on the footing that most Torahs originated from the Creator, aka God ( Sterling 1 ) . Now, based upon the very nature of both of these doctrines comes another really critical difference, which is that American jurisprudence is by and large accepted to be ‘ merely and changeless ‘ , while Roman jurisprudence was really subjective and changed frequently along with the coming and traveling of politicians ( Sterling 1 ) .

Now, one of import construct of American condemnable justness is the ‘Importance of Mens Rea ( holding a guilty head ) or condemnable purpose ” ( Sterling 1 ) . This rule was put into usage after the Gregorian reform in 1215 ( Sterling 1 ) . Another popular rule in modern condemnable justness that was influenced by the English and set into consequence during the same clip as Mens Rea was Actus Reas or the guilty act, both of these constructs being highly of import to merely approximately every determination made in England during the clip period, and was besides critical into the yearss of the American Colonies ( Sterling 1 ) . John Locke, founded a cardinal construct of early American justness in his work ‘Treatise on Law and Government ‘ in 1960, which was:

“ ..the province all work forces are of course in, and that is a province of perfect freedom to order their actions and dispose of ownerships and individuals as they see fit. Civil authorization is a proper redress for the incommodiousness of the province of nature. Every adult male or authorities is in a province of nature when there exists no civil authorization to settle a difference between them. They have non surrendered themselves to a common justice. ” ( Sterling 1 )

This construct fundamentally states that worlds are in a natural province of abandon and will of course make as they please, so in order to maintain people in line there must be some system of external restraint that helps them to forbear from their natural inherent aptitudes.

Another construct that was started in England prior to the formation of America was the construct of Civil Duties, which was established by Sir William Blackstone, who besides happened to set up many others of the founding constructs of English and American justness ( Sterling 1 ) . Civil Duties are basically the necessary undertakings every member of society must lend to assist maintain order in the society and harvest the benefits of the order established by the society. One really common civil responsibility that most are familiar with is Jury responsibility which is required unless there is a significant ground as to why one can non lend. Another construct created by Blackstone is that the condemnable justness system can merely chair and supervise the personal businesss between adult male and his fellow adult male, but the tribunal system has no legal power in affairs of adult male and God, though this rule has been badly twisted from its original signifier, now taking the signifier of ‘separation of church and province ‘ which was non the original purpose of Blackstone ‘s construct ( Sterling 1 ) . Blackstone besides furthered the normally held belief that if one ‘s behavior does non go against God ‘s jurisprudence or is damaging to a fellow adult male, that it should non be deemed illegal by civil tribunals. Blackstone besides ‘pointed out that restraint of single right should be easy recognized by all those who are being asked to give up a right for the “ necessary ” demands of the province ‘ ( Sterling 1 ) .

All in all, there were 14 chief constructs of justness that were created around this clip period in England, those being:

‘Justice is proportionate to our actions, justness is retaliatory, justness is retaliatory, justness is compensatory, judgement under the jurisprudence is declarative, judgement under the jurisprudence is remedial, judgement under the jurisprudence is directing, load of cogent evidence “ beyond sensible uncertainty ” , unalienable right to belongings, citizens can non be treated like felons unless they have been tried and convicted as felons, no human jurisprudence or justness can preempt ‘natural ( or God ‘s ) jurisprudence ‘ , absolute rights are God given, God has placed on every civil authorization the duty to see that absolute rights are non infringed, and upon citizens, the authorities is to boot charged with protection of citizenship ( comparative ) rights. ‘ ( Sterling 1 )

The alteration that occurred to the common English Torahs during the early yearss of the American Colonies was due about wholly to the cultural and societal differences that developed between England and the Colonies ( Sterling 1 ) . A batch of the alterations that occurred were besides due to the alteration in doctrine that the new found Americans had, which was that of ‘enlightenment ‘ doctrine ( Sterling 1 ) . This clip period besides saw the beginning of the system of cheques and balances which was established to keep a balance of power between the 3 wings of authorities, which was due to the more complex nature of the quickly developing settlements ( Sterling 1 ) . Another alteration to the justness system in early America was ‘the power of the jury to make up one’s mind both ‘the facts and the jurisprudence ” , this ‘acted as an informal reform of the system without the cumbrous legislative procedure. ‘ ( Sterling 1 ) . Furthermore, ‘when this produced inconsistent and frequently contradictory consequences, the ‘rules of grounds ‘ were strengthened. The power of the justice was balanced against the power of the jury ; the citizen against the province ; the province against the federal authorities. ‘ ( Sterling 1 )

Now, in more modern times, the condemnable justness system has evolved yet once more from its early old ages in the settlements. One chief difference is that the constructs of Actus Rea and Mens Rea, which were adopted before the settlements and carried over through the old ages of the settlements, were strayed from in exchange for a more ‘modern attack ‘ to justness ( Sterling 1 ) . This alteration was brought approximately by the simple fact that ‘the demand of an act is one that is grounds of a pick being made and pick, of class, brings into inquiry the province of head ( drug induced, emotion induced, medical/psychological facets ) . ‘ ( Sterling 1 ) This fact entirely made the whole system of guilt more equivocal than it antecedently was, therefore ‘in an attempt to do the condemnable justness system more unvarying and predictable, Judgess and legal theoreticians sought to marginalise the component of “ purpose ” . They sought to film over the lines between condemnable jurisprudence and civil jurisprudence by minimising, or extinguishing wholly, the demand of Mens Rea. ‘ ( Sterling 1 )

In the 1800 ‘s, a adult male by the name of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. was a justice in the Supreme Court. Mr. Holmes was about single-handedly responsible for conveying approximately yet another alteration of doctrine within the American Justice system, that being a ‘Darwinian Positivistic ‘ legal doctrine, which argued in favour of rigorous liability. ( Sterling 1 ) What this new mentality fundamentally did was nullified the demand for purpose when it came to offense, alternatively it made it sufficient to merely turn out that an act was in misdemeanor of the established Torahs irrespective of the purpose of the act. This doctrine besides put the chief justification for the penalty on disincentive instead than the authoritative requital of the Bible ( Sterling 1 ) . So,

‘by extinguishing the load of cogent evidence on the prosecution to bring forth grounds of ‘intent ‘ to make injury, the authorities is free to make a 3rd ‘classification ‘ of jurisprudence under which they can enforce ‘sanctions ‘ on the accused. Sanctions are non ‘punishment ‘ ( which is one of the ways of separating condemnable behavior ) hence ensuing in greater societal control by flexing, without interrupting, the constitutional protections in the Bill of Rights. ‘ ( Sterling 1 )

This new doctrine of jurisprudence continued to compete with the constructs of the English Common Law in the eyes of both politicians and Judgess, and go on to see-saw back and away even today, therefore making an un-uniform and inconsistent foundation for offense and penalty ( Sterling 1 ) .

With these many facts in head it is evident that the American Criminal Justice system is a much deeper and complex system than it first appears. With many roots in spiritual instructions and the constructs created by civilisations past the American justness system has a solid foundation laid. The thing that sets the American justness system apart from those of other states, nevertheless is the societal and philosophical development that the Torahs and penalties have received as the state and authorities developed. The history of justness was shaped by the basic grounds for its being in the first topographic point, those being society ‘s effort to discourage condemnable behaviour, exact requital on the guilty, rehabilitate those less than functional members of society, and incapacitate those who can non be rehabilitated from perpetrating another offense.